Porter's deep-mahogany colour comes from a darkly roasted malt. The flavour varies from slightly nutty with burnt grain hints to bittersweet chocolate and coffee. Originating as a distinct style in the 1700s, its name comes from the hardworking porters of London who enjoyed this inexpensive, fortifying drink.

Beer: Ratings & Reviews

You KNow what I just poured this beer in my glass and it comes out so flat it's pretty unreal ! I don't get this one.No foam, no lacing no nothing little signs of bubbles al around the rim of the glass buts thats it !The color is nice tough a dark brownish robe. You get to see through next to a light..Its a great color for a porter..but whats up with the carbonation level !!..Give me a little something !!

The Smell is nice, Smoked malt, a little molasse and dark fruity chocolate and candy sugar. Theres also some dark licorish hints.

Its a nice taste same as the smell...Burnt caramel, smoky malt, star anis...not really but something similar...cough syrup...yeah sort of. Not bad but were is the GAZ!

The taste of burnt malt sticks to the palate for a while and I like that. But sorry folks the lack of carbonation has handcuffed me to review this beer pretty badly

Less than a finger's worth of soapy cream coloured head is left sitting on top of its deep cola brown body after an aggressive pour. Webbed lace pastes itself across the top of the glass after a few swirls.

Pleasant notes of dark chocolate, whisky, and caramel are prominent in this tamed porter. A touch of roastiness and dark fruits makes the smell a bit more rich and a bit more interesting.

Roasted malts and coffee beans flash across the tongue with sweet dark chocolate layered behind them. The roastiness continues into the finish with some messy carbonation that somehow helps bring it out. A touch of dirty earthiness also sits on the tongue in the end that doesn't really entice me to take another sip.

Light, watery, and under carbonated. The level of carbonation takes away from the beer rather than helping to guide it along. With the average ABV and thin mouthfeel, it's easy to take mouthfulls of this stuff but not enjoyable to do so.

A new Ontario brewery sprouting up is only a postive for me, but this, being their only current offering at the LCBO, is not anything but positive. It's not the fact that this seemed to be mediocre at best in nearly all of the 5 categories that makes this a poorly rendered porter, it's the funky earthiness prevalent in the finish and its sub par mouthfeel. I'd still give this brewery another shot, but won't be buying this one again.

Bottle: Poured a dark clear black color porter with a large off-white foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma consists of aromatic coffee with nice dry roasted notes. Taste is well balanced between some dry roasted malt notes with some really nice aromatic coffee notes. Body is a bit light for style with good carbonation. Better then expected form this new brewery.

T - Cola aspect is there again with that mild chocolate and coffee. Some of that typical Trafalgar-ness is the form of sourish notes. Dry finish and some slight bitterness. A hint of grassiness or something akin to that is there too but I can't quite pinpoint it.

M - Medium bodied with not alot of carbonation. Smooth.

D - Ok but not great. Decent for these guys and a decent plain old porter but off in some respects. These guys can't get it right and the LCBO eats it up. Don't want another.

I can't believe this is a Toronto beer, let alone linked to Trafalgar Brewing. The full-bodied coffee/choco/malty flavour and slight bitterness equal one satisfying mouthful. Yet its smooth, great lingering mouthfeel. The aroma is malty and something else ... meaty? Very drinkable. I would buy this for a party, as it can be enjoyed singly or en volume. Oh -- not a porter though, lol.

500ml bottle with crown cap poured in a pint glass. Thank you to my wife for bringing this back from Toronto!

Clear, dark brown with ruby highlights. Tan head is 1/4 inch on the pour, but quickly recedes to a thin ring around the edge. Patches of lacing here and there.

Malty sweet nose. Malt, nut, slightly burnt.

Lightly burnt malts and sweetness off the start. Almost like a burnt marshmellow, but more caramel flavour and not quite that sweet. Finish is lightly burnt malt with a hint of floral hops.

Medium bodied, but actually a little thin for a porter. Mild carbonation.

This is a weird little concoction. It's actually kind of like a hybrid between an English Brown Ale and an English Porter. Not quite black enough and not enough body to be a true porter. But it's rather tasty and I enjoyed it. I originally gave lower marks because it doesn't fit the style at all, but in the end I felt that wasn't doing the beer justice. This is their take on an English Porter and while it may not be true to guidelines, it is a rather nice little brew.

picked this up at the LCBO. 500ml bottle.Black Creek village is a historic pioneer recreation that has been in operation for a very long time. All school children in the Toronto area have been for a visit at one time.

Old fashioned costumes with old timey speech. lots of fun. time to try their beer.

right out of the bottle i get a smokey, chocolate, whiskey aroma.

pours dark dark ruby or brown with no head. looks like flat coke in the glass.

Black Creek Porter is actually more of a dark brown; transparency is easily observed as are warmer, more vivid tones when held into the light. Whatever head formed off the pour has long evaporated and shows no signs of coming back. It still looks alright though.

Supposedly, Black Creek Porter is based on a collection of recipes dating back to the 1800s. This doesn't surprise me, given how bare, unembellished and elementary the thing smells. Brown malts, lightly smoked and roasty, make up the entirety of the aroma without, some dark fruit exempted, a trace, trickle or smidgen of anything exciting to dress them up.

Although the original recipe is brewed in small batches and fermented in oak barrels for the Black Creek Pioneer Village this bottled version is brewed at Trafalgar Brewing. How a brewery with such a terrible track record of quality control earned the contract is beyond me and, to no one's surprise, the beer suffers from their signature flat, syrupy texture.

But otherwise it isn't so bad. The malt bill, despite being quite thinnish, amounts to a solidly roasted flavour with hints of coffee and hazelnut that is agreeable and toothsome enough to entertain for the full pint. A very modest bitterness concludes things lickety-split, ending prematurely the cocoa-like flavour that I'd of liked to linger.

Black Creek Porter has obviously made huge strides since it was first debuted. While it still has a ways to go, at very least it makes a serviceable, half-way decent beer. This has been my second bottle of it and while I can't justify purchasing another, I feel confident enough in trying something else from this brewery and will be expecting positive results.

Bottle randomly picked up at the uptown Waterloo LCBO. I visited Black Creek way back when in public school - interested to find they have a brewery.

Poured into a nonic. Dark brown, chestnut round the edges when held to the light. Thin head quickly recedes after pouring. Sharp carbonation creates the visual effect of a pint of Coca Cola. Good lacing on the glass, however.

Nose is roasted malt, coffee, caramel, oats.

Actually, tastes pretty fine, about where a porter should be at. Similar notes to the nose, good malty base, finish gets a bit thin and tinny, but other than that, it'll do. Smooth and flavorful.

Mouthfeel is a bit thin, but it's easy to drink and has reasonable carbonation.

A decent porter. Clearly they've fixed whatever major problems the early cask editions had going on. Nothing truly unique to back up the bottle's claim that one will "taste Ontario's brewing heritage," but still it did the trick. Worth a try.

Bottled version, which is hopefully a million miles away from the barrel-aged version I had a year or so back.

Cola coloured body with a finger of tiny head that slowly subsides and leaves some excellent lace patches on the glass. Nose is extremely pleasant with cocoa, coffee, chocolate and oats. Gentle flavour contains everything noted in the nose, with the cocoa perhaps proving the most dominant. A very pleasing and sessionable combination, and far removed from the cheap Hungarian table wine that the first one reminded me of. Medium-light body and a smooth carbonation.

I like this one - it makes a nice addition to the scene and is a damn solid porter. It doesn't even seem to have suffered from being bottled at Trafalgar.

Pours a dark brown colour with tan head that quickly dissipates without much lacing. Smells of roasted malt and coffee. Flavour is quite nice, some mild bitterness and the roast really comes through. Carbonation is good despite having almost no head on the beer. A nice porter. I suspect ratings would be higher for this if everyone had it in bottle instead of on cask.

Not what I was expecting. This is a case of marketing an inferior product with some prestige design. First of all it pours flat, smells flat and tastes... surprise! Flat. The flavours are so so. Some roasted chocolate and vanilla but the body is so limp that this get's a low rating from me.

Cask at C'est What. My last four ounces of beer in the evening, and something I needed to sip. The brewer told me they have had to toss at least one cask of porter in the past, so I can understand some wide variance in recipes and process from what is served. It was very wine like, and strong tannins at that! And the wine that you have around in your fridge longer than you should and its becoming vinegarish. No carbonation itself. Reddish black. I do believe wine was added. Vinegar aroma.

Pours an opaque and oily dark brown/black, no head at all, few brown bubbles float around on top, doesn't look very appetizing. Smell is awful, dirty socks, weird fruitiness, sweat, Derek described it as if someone wiped their ass with a piece of licorice, this is pretty gross. Taste is weird, almost exactly like a glass of cheap red wine, really grapey, some fruit, licorice, oily feel, no idea what is going on. Mouthfeel is medium bodied, no carbonation, very slick. Definitely not enjoyable. I know they're trying to be traditional but beer wouldn't exist anymore if it always tasted this bad.